Baltimore, LORDS.

I. GEORGE CALVERT

Was born about 1580, at Kipling, Yorkshire,
England; was graduated at Oxford; travelled on the Continent; became
secretary of Robert Cecil; married Anne Minne in 1604; was a clerk
of the privy council; was knighted in 1617; became a secretary of
state soon afterwards, and in 1620 was granted a pension of $5,000 a
year. When, in 1624, he publicly avowed himself a Roman Catholic, he
resigned his office, but King James retained him in the privy
council ; and a few days before that monarch's death he was created
Baron of Baltimore in the Irish peerage. Calvert had already entered
upon a colonizing scheme. In 1620 he purchased a part of
Newfoundland, and was invested with the privileges and honors of a
count - palatine. He called his new domain Avalon, and, after
spending about $100,000 in building ware-houses there, and a mansion
for himself, he went thither in 1627. He returned to England the
following spring. In the spring of 1629 he went again to Avalon,
taking with him his wife and unmarried children. The following
winter was a severe one, and he began to contemplate a desertion of
the domain on account of the rigorous climate. He sent his children
home. In the autumn he actually abandoned Newfoundland, and with his
wife and retainers sailed to Virginia, where, because he refused to
take the oath of allegiance, he was ordered away by Governor Harvey.
His wife and retainers remained there during the winter. Going from
there in the spring, it is supposed he explored the shores of
Chesapeake Bay, and chose that region for a settlement. In 1632,
Lord Baltimore obtained a charter from
Charles I. of the territory on the Chesapeake now forming the
State of Maryland. " What will you call the country?" asked the
King. Baltimore referred the matter to his Majesty. " Then let us
name it after the Queen " (Henrietta Maria), said Charles, " and
call it Mariana." The expert courtier dissented, be-cause that was
the name of a Spanish historian who taught that " the will of the
people is higher than the law of tyrants." Still disposed to
compliment the Queen, the King said, " Let it be Terra MariceóMary's
Land." And it was named Mary-land. Before the great seal of England
was affixed to the charter, Lord Baltimore died, April 15, 1632, and
was succeeded by his son Cecil.

II. CECILIUS Or CECIL CALVERT

Second
Lord Baltimore, was born about 1605. Very little is known of his
early life. When he was about twenty years of age he married Anne,
the beautiful daughter of the Earl of Arundel, who was one of the
most influential Roman Catholics in the realm. On the death of his
father, the charter for Maryland was issued to Cecilius, his eldest
son and heir, June, 1632 ; and he immediately prepared to sail for
the Chesapeake with a colony. When he was about ready to depart, he
changed his mind, and sent his brother Leonard, as governor, with
his brother George, and two assistants and counsellors, Jeremy
Hawley and Thomas Cornwallis, both Protestants. The whole company,
who sailed in two vessels-the Ark and Dove-numbered over 300,
according to Lord Baltimore, who wrote to his friend Went-worth
(afterwards the unfortunate Earl of Strafford: "By the help of some
of your lordship's good friends and mine, I have sent a hopeful
colony into Maryland, with a fair and favorable expectation of good
success, without any great prejudice to my-self, in respect that
many others are joined with me in the adventure. There are two of my
brothers, with very near twenty other gentlemen of very good
fashion, and 300 laboring men." As most of the latter took the oath
of allegiance before sailing, they were probably Protestants. Father
Andrew White, a Jesuit priest, accompanied the expedition. They
sailed from the Isle of Wight, and took the tedious southern route
by way of the Canaries. The vessels were separated by a furious
gale, but met at Bermuda, whence the emigrants went to the
Chesapeake, founded a settlement, and established a government under
the charter, which was nearly the same in form as all charters then
granted (see MARYLAND) . It
conferred on the proprietor absolute ownership of the territory, and
also the civil and ecclesiastical power of a feudal nature. En-tire
exemption from taxation was con-ceded to the colonists. As an
acknowledgment that the original title to the land was still in the
possession of the crown, the proprietor was required to pay to the
King the tribute of two Indian arrows. Cecil was a member of
Parliament in 1634, but mingled very little in public affairs
afterwards. He never came to America, but & managed his province by
deputies forty-three years. His course towards the colonists was
generally wise and conciliatory, because it was profitable to be so.
In religion and politics he was very flexible, being quite
indifferent to either, and he did very little for the religious and
intellectual cultivation of the colonists. Negatively good, he was
regarded with great respect by all parties, even by the Indians. He
died in London, Nov. 30, 1675.

III. CHARLES CALVERT

third Lord Baltimore, succeeded his father as
lord proprietor of Maryland in 1675. He was born in London in 1629;
appointed governor of Maryland in 1661; and married the daughter of
Honorable Henry Sewall, whose seat was on the Patuxent river. After
the death of his father he visited England, but soon returned. In
1684 he again went to England, and never came back. He was suspected
of favoring King James II. after the Revolution, and was outlawed
for treason in Ireland, although he was never in that country. The
outlawry was re-versed by William and Mary in 1691. Charles Lord
Baltimore was thrice married, and died in London, Feb. 24, 1714.

IV. BENEDICT LEONARD CALVERT

Benedict
Leonard Calvert was the Fourth Lord Baltimore, succeeded his father,
Charles Calvert, in 1714. In 1698 he married Lady Charlotte Lee,
daughter of the Earl of Lichfield (granddaughter of the notorious
Duchess of Cleveland, the favorite mistress of
Charles II.), from whom he was
divorced in 1705. Benedict publicly abjured the Roman Catholic faith
in 1713, and died in 1715, only thirteen months after the death of
his father.

V. CHARLES CALVERT II.

Son of Benedict, and the fifth Lord Baltimore,
was born Sept. 29, 1699, and was an infant in law when he succeeded
to his father's title. In July, 1730, he married the widow Mary
Janssen, youngest daughter of General Theodore Janssen. His life was
spent chiefly in England. In 1731 he was appointed gentleman of the
bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, and soon afterwards was elected
Fellow of the Royal Society. He was in Parliament in 1734, and in
1741 was appointed Junior Lord of the Admiralty. In the spring of
1741 he was appointed cofferer to the Prince of Wales and
surveyor-general of the Duchy lands in Cornwall. After having ruled
Maryland in person and by deputy more than thirty years, he died
April 24, 1751, at his home in London.

VI. FREDERICK CALVERT

Sixth and lastLord Baltimore, was born in
1731, and succeeded to the title of his father, Charles Calvert II.,
in 1751. He married Lady Diiana Egerton, youngest daughter of the
Duke of Bridgewater, in 1753. He led a disreputable life, and died
at the age of forty, at Naples, Sept. 14, 1771. Yet he was a patron
of literature and a friend and companion of the Earl of Chatham
(Pitt). In 1767 he published an account of his Tour in the East. He
was a pretentious author of several other works, mostly of a weak
character. Lord Frederick bequeathed the province of Maryland, in
tail male, to Henry Harford, then a child, and the remainder, in
fee, to his sister, the Hon. Mrs. Norton. He left an estate valued
at $5,000.

The last representative of the Baltimore family
was found in a debtors' prison in England, in 1860, by Col. Angus
McDonald, of Virginia, where he had been confined for twenty years.
Henry Harford was the last proprietor of
Maryland.

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